The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the stories shared by interventionists which focused on the work they do to create student connectedness in rural middle schools. Illinois schools are designated by performance indicators, where successful schools are rated "Exemplary" or "Commendable" based primarily on…

The quantitative study examined the connection between principal leadership practices and the morale of elementary, middle, and high school teachers in rural Southern Illinois. These rural districts serve students in grades Pre-K through twelve. This cross-sectional survey design identifies the most prevalent practices in the study's population…

This paper shares the findings of a non-experimental quantitative case study done in a rural central Illinois K-8 school district. The study focused on the delivery of student social and emotional learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and how educators were able to still design equitable learning opportunities for students through their social and…

Physical education (PE) programs provide learning experiences designed to fulfill developmental and behavioral needs of the whole child. In the state of Illinois and across the country, however, student-centered PE programs are being limited or eliminated. Illinois laws reduced the requirements of PE and gave school district administrators the…

This technical appendix provides additional information about the sample, data, and estimation strategy used for a series of American Educator Panels (AEP) Data Notes published by the RAND Corporation in 2019. The Data Note series is intended to provide brief but incisive analyses of teacher and school leader survey results that may be of…

This article highlights an inquiry project in an eighth-grade ELA class in a rural middle school. Using the novel "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers, we encouraged students to form questions relating the text to the larger world. To begin the unit, students participated in three anchor activities over a three-week period. Students blogged…

Several social-emotional learning (SEL) or social-emotional and character development (SECD) programs have been shown to be effective at improving SEL/SECD skills, and some have also provided evidence of effectiveness in improving student behavior and academic achievement (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Very few SEL…

This action research project report uses standard-based grading to address the problem of traditional grades not adequately assessing student content mastery and students' lack of awareness regarding their strengths and weaknesses. Research was conducted by one elementary and two middle school teachers with 158 students between the dates of…

Analyses of data from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) show how strongly associated the socioeconomic characteristics of schools are with school outcomes. Factors such as the percentage of students who are poor, percentage black, and the property values within a district explain over 70% of the variance in school outcomes. However,…

Research suggests positive interaction between students and teachers is a hallmark of a safe and effective school. Yet to date there is no literature presenting findings or case examples of what constitutes positive engagement or how to measure its frequency. This paper shares observations of a "model" rural middle school in an attempt…